Berkeley Lab Genomics Division head and Joint Genome
Institute Director Eddy Rubin and a
team of collaborators have secured a four-year, $11.6
million National Institutes of Health grant renewal
to accelerate the development of and facilitate access
to comparative genomics tools for heart, lung and blood
research. These methods specifically focus on deciphering
biomedically relevant features in the human genome.
Full
story.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Energy,
Labor Open
Benefits Aid Center

The
Departments of Energy and Labor will open a new Energy
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program
Act (EEOICPA) Resource Center in Livermore tomorrow.
An opening ceremony will be held at 2600 Kitty Hawk
Road, Suite 101 in Livermore at 10 a.m. The resource
center will assist current and former DOE employees,
contractors, subcontractors, employees of atomic weapons
companies and employees of designated beryllium vendors,
as well as eligible survivors of employees filing for
benefits under the EEOICPA. Full
story.

One
Week to Go
For Bus Shuttle Survey

If
you are a Lab employee who uses the shuttle buses for
transportation, then you owe it to yourself to fill
out a customer survey now being conducted by the Facilities
Division. This is the last week that riders have the
opportunity to make their views known. Survey responses
will help determine whether changes should be made to
the current shuttle system. Go here
to fill out an on-line form before the Friday deadline.

ATLAS
Outreach, DNA,
Cool Roofs in New ‘Beat’

The
latest issue of Berkeley Lab’s webzine “Science
Beat” has been published, its features including
physicist Michael Barnett’s responsibilities
as outreach co-chair for the international ATLAS detector
collaboration. Also in this month’s issue are
stories about DNA fiber coils and replication, roofing
colors that keep buildings cooler, and a biobot tool
kit. Go here
to read them.

IN MEMORIAM

Siri

Biophysicist
Siri, Scientist And Adventurer, Dies By Kevin Fagan

Anyone
who ever clung to the image of physics researchers as
nerds who never leave the comfy confines of their labs
should have met William Siri. The man
helped define the meaning of science as adventure. Siri,
who died last Tuesday at his Berkeley home at 85, was
co-leader of the first American expedition to successfully
climb Mount Everest. He was a leading researcher in
biophysics at Berkeley Lab, a job that began after he
helped create the atomic bomb as a member of the Manhattan
Project from 1943 to 1945. He teamed up with John
Lawrence  known as "the father of
nuclear medicine"  to research technologies
to help the human body. Full
story (a profile of Siri will appear in Friday’s
issue of The View).